A Secondary Beginning
by MerrSuiNur
Summary: Mari's take on the beginning of the second coming of Kingdom Hearts.


**Heeeey folks**

Anyway, this is pretty much the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2 from Mari's point of view. You get to learn more about her and her home and friends and what not. Though I actually don't hand this up as what actually happened and all that jazz...

The story and Mari and her home and friends are mine, but Kingdom Hearts and it's characters are not.

Here we go

A group of three teenagers walked slowly along the pavement, two boys and one girl. The boys walked ahead of the girl laughing at something they had just said. The girl, however, was staring down at the pavement and trailing along behind them. One of her lightly tanned hands rested on the back of her thin neck.

'Why do I always feel this way? Why do I feel like I'm waiting for something important to come back? To fill this empty place in my heart?'

"Mari!"

"Huh?!" Her head snapped up and she stopped in her tracks as she was pulled from her thoughts. Her golden brown hair went forward, causing her slanty cut hair to look even more slanted.

"Mari, what are you doing back there?" One boy asked. He grinned as he spoke.

"Yea Mari, I don't like you walking so far behind us." said the other boy. He looked at her with gentle brown eyes.

"Sorry Kenta..." Mari said to the brown eyed boy. She smiled weakly as she quicken her pace to catch up with them. "You guys really didn't have to walk me home. I know how to get home from The Station." She said, now walking in time with them.

"I know but Kenta wanted to make sure you got home safe and sound." Said the navy haired boy.

Kenta shrugged. "Is there something wrong with that?" Kenta asked. It was common knowledge among Kenta's friends that he cared for Mari, more than he cared for other people.

When Crescent Central disappeared last year, he spent all his time away looking for her. Mari, on the other hand, spent her time away... she couldn't remember exactly what she had been doing.

"This is my street." Alyder said, waving goodbye to his friends and turning away.

"Bye Alyder!"

"See ya tomorrow!"

Kenta and Mari continued to walk along to road in a somewhat uncomfortable silence. "So...," Kenta said after a while, "tomorrow is the last day of school before we get a day off."

"Yea." Mari said with a nod.

"Are you going to go to The Station?" He asked.

"Yea, I don't have anything else to do." Mari said with a laugh and a broad grin.

"Point taken." Kenta said, stopping at Mari's street corner. "So, I'll see you tomorrow then."

Mari smirked. "We go to the same school Kenta, of course you'll see me." The two stood in an akward pause. "So, see you tomorrow then." Mari said as she backed away and started to go towards her house.

"Oh, yea, see ya..." Kenta said with a wave as she left. He waited until she had turned her back to him before he started to walk away.

Mari walked up her street. The sun was going to set in about an hour. Damn detention, it was always holding her up. She sighed and looked down at her school uniform. It wouldn't make sense to go and try to run to The Cliff. Besides, going around in this uniform didn't really sound like her idea of fun. Instead, she just decided to head home, she might as well get to sleep now so she wouldn't be late in the morning and have to waste some of her break time in detention.

Once in her room she threw her bookbag on to a chair and sat down on the floor next to her bed. Mari reached up and pulled a small peice of a chain made of crowns from under her pillow. Her deep green eyes looked down at the peice of metal in her hand. "I don't rememebr where I got this," she said as she slowly closed her fingers around the chain, "but I do know that it was from someone important." She was now holding the chain to her heart. "I want to remember. I really do..." Her voice was quiet and sad. How stupid could she be to forget. If whatever this chain represents was that important to her to leave such an empty space within her, how could she simply forget it, just like that.

With another sigh and a quick glance at the silver string of crowns, she quickly stashed it back under her pillow and stood up. When she looked out the window she couldn't belive that she was seeing stars already. Had she really spent an hour sitting on her floor with that chain? "Wow..." she muttered, stretching her arms above her head, "I guess I should just go to bed..." And with that Mari changed into her pajamas and jumped into bed. Even though she stayed up for about another hour trying to think of what this empty place in her heart could be, like she did almost every night, she eventually went to sleep.

--

Deep green eyes fluttered open when the sunlight started to warm Mari's face. "Mm?" She pushed herself up at looked out the window. "Crap... I only have a half an hour!" She shouted as she jumped out of bed and went to put on her light grey and white school dress. She grabbed her book bag and tore out the door.

She continued running down several streets until she got to the SubTrain station, where she skid to a halt and waited with the rest of the crowd. Though she was slouching slightly, trying to catch her breath, she straightened up and turn quickly on her heels when she heard someone call her name. Alyder's navy blue hair gave him away in an instant.

"Hey Alyder." Mari said with a wave and a smile.

"It's nice to see you on time for once."

"Oh shut up!" Mari said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Ah, I'm just saying now Kenta won't make me wait up for you after detention." Alyder said with a laugh. Mari laughed along with him, stopping when she heard someone say "What's so funny?" Kenta. She knew that voice anywhere.

"Nothing." Mari and Alyder said at the same time as the train pulled up.

"If you two say so." Kenta said as he moved towards the train. He held his bag infront of the door to make sure that it didn't close as he waited for Mari to go through.

"Thanks" She said, even though she was sure to step through at the same time as Alyder. All the extra care that Kenta gave her ever since she had come back, she just didn't like it. Mari took a seat in between Alyder and the railing. Kenta's facial expression twitched for a second when he saw that there was no open seat next to Mari, but that was before he grabbed onto the pole the came up from the railing that Mari was sitting next to.

Mari glanced up at Kenta quickly 'I wish he could understand...' she sighed to herself and looked at the bag she had in her lap. 'I don't want to get any more attached to anyone else until I remember.'

--

Mari strolled into the classroom early and took her seat near the window. "Ha, no detention for me today."

--

"Mari! Come on!" Mari looked up to see her friend Edlyn. "Everyone's already left for the train, if we don't hurry we'll be late. I promised Kenta I'd bring you back safe."

Mari smirked a little as she stood up. "So you're only here because Kenta asked you to come get me?"

"No! I'm here so Kenta would give you some breathing room." Edlyn said, who had turned and starting walking down the hall when Mari caught up to her, "He has been awful close to you recently."

"Yea, well..." Mari wasn't really sure what to say to that. Only Kenta and herself seemed to remember that Crescent Central disappeared.

"Well, anyway, they're all probably at The Station by now."

"Yea... Race you to the SubTrain?" Mari asked, seconds before breaking out into a run.

"Mari! That's not fair! You know you're like the second fastest person ever!" Edlyn shouted after her before starting to run herself.

--

Mari skid to a halt at the corner of the SubTrain station and waited for Edlyn. "Took you long enough." She said with a smirk when her friend came staggering up the road.

"Mari that is so not fair!" Edlyn whined as she slumped over, her hands on her knees, to try and catch her breath.

"Come on, we've got to catch the SubTrain." Mari said with a quiet laugh.

The two girls had to wait for a while for a train to show up. "See Mari? You made us miss the first train." Edlyn whined, crossing her arms over her chest.

Mari shrugged. "Hey, I wanted to run."

"You can only run with people who are as fast as you, which is, like, no one."

"Well, I guess I'll never run again then. Happy?"

Edlyn rolled her blue eyes. "Oh shut up Mari. You're so dramatic."

Mari grinned, "I've been told it's one of my strong points."

Edlyn shook her head and laughed at the golden haired girl next to her. Mari giggled back and straightened her hair a little as the train pulled up. "Finally!" Edlyn said, walking towards the train as the doors opened.

"Oh, who's the dramatic one now? We only waited for about two minutes." Mari said as she followed after her. The two girls sat down next to eachother on the empty train.

"Mari, can I ask you something?" Edlyn asked suddenly.

Mari grinned broadly, " I believe you already did."

Edlyn frowned. "I'm being serious. I'm worried about you. You look so sad lately. I'm not the only one, Alyder and Kenta have noticed too."

Mari shook her head and smiled, "Edlyn, I'm fine. I've just been really tired lately. I'm going to try and catch some extra sleep tomorrow, so don't even worry about it."

"Are you sure that's it."

"Yes, I'm sure." Mari said with another smile.

The truth was that Mari was sleeping fine. The fact the she couldn't remember what was so important to her or anything about that chain was eating away her, more so now than before for some reason.

The train slowed to a stop and the girls stood up. Once they were safely on the platform the train pulled away. Mari and Edlyn waited until they were the only people left on the platform before stepping up to the very edge of the platform. The two girls remained deathly silent for about thirty seconds.

"Are you ready? I think we've got at least a minute." Mari muttered.

Edlyn nodded. "Yea, let's go!"

Both girls jumped down into the deep dip in the ground that held the tracks, support beams and the SubTrains themselves. They run to the divider, which kept opposite moving trains from hitting eachother, and jumped over it quickly. They ran to an opening in the wall opposite them.

"Here," Mari handed Edlyn her school bag, "I'll give you a boost so you can get up there." Edlyn nodded and stepped into Mari's webbed fingers and reached up, tossing the bags through the hole. "Ready?" Mari asked again.

"Yea." Edlyn said, still reaching up as Mari lefted her hands upward. Edlyn grabbed onto the edge of the hole and started to pull herself up as Mari switched the positioning of her hands so that each of her hands were support each on Edlyn's feet. Mari held her heands above her head, letting the girl easily climb through the gap.

She could hear Edlyn greet the people inside. Mari backed up a little bit, she noted that the ground was shaking a tiny bit and the tremor was growing steadily, a train way coming this way. Taking a few quite steps towards the wall, she jumped up and grabbed the edge. She started to pull herself up. "Hey guys." she said as her head cleared the wall. As she looked up she expected to see the empty, boarded up Subtrain station, but instead, she found herself staring right into Kenta's face- which was about three inches away. "AH!" Mari gasped quickly and pulled back away from the boy. Consequently, her sudden movement caused her to loose her balance and fall to the floor. She hit the ground with a heavy thud that sent a cloud of dust flying into the air.

"Ow.." She muttered, noticing the ground was shaking intensly now and the tunnel was flooding with Subtrain headlights. "Oh no!" She muttered, scrambling up and running towards the center divider. She could just jump into the other lane. Mari skid to a halt for a second when she noticed that a Subtrain was coming up fast in the other lane too. She jumped into the divider and squeezed her own into a support beam. Mari clapped her hands over her ears and clenched her eyes shut as the train got closer. The beam shook so much that it was hard for the poor girl to stay standing. The good thing was that the train passed with the minute.

Mari sank down into a sitting position and took several deep breaths. Her ears were ringing, her eyes felt weird from being shut so tight for so long. "Mari! Are you okay?" Kenta was kneeling infront of her. Mari looked up at him, needless to say, her expression wasn't all that happy. "Mari...?"

"I'm fine." She said, standing up and dusting off her uniform like it was nothing.

"I'll help you up into The Station." Kenta offered quietly.

"No." Mari said sternly, "I'm fine without your help." She didn't even bother to look at him to see what her words had done to the boy as she jumped up and made her way into The Station.

She dusted herself off and looked at the two people standing akwardly infront of her. "Hey guys." She said with a smile.

Edlyn stepped forward slowly. "Um, Mari...?"

Mari looked over at her pink haired friend. "Yea?"

"Are you okay?" She mumbled.

"Edlyn... I'm fine." Mari said, walking towards the makeshift couch that her bag had been deposited on.

"Mari?"

"Sorry Alyder, I don't think I should stay here." She said solemnly. She grabbed her bookbag and turned, give her friends a quick smile. "You guys don't have to worry about me," she said as she walked back towards the opening in the wall, "I'll be fine." She quickly checked to see if the coast was clear and then tossed down her bag. "See ya." She said over her shoulder just before she jumped down.

Mari sighed as she picked up her bag and straightened up. She walked her way to the barrier when suddenly a bright purple train with big, bright yellow stars on it appeared in the other Subtrain lane. Mari shook her head and rubbed her eyes. "What the..?" She stepped towards it. It defiantly looked real. "Hey, guys?" She called out, not taking her eyes off of the strange train.

"Yea?" Alyder's voice answered her.

Mari pointed straight at the vibrant vehicle infront of her. "What do you make of this funny looking train?"

Silence.

"What train?"

Mari turned around and looked up at Alyder. "You mean you can't see it?" She asked, pointing back at it, "It's right... there..." She turned to look at the purple train midsentence but the mysterious vehicle had disappeared. "Uh, nevermind..." She said, shaking her head and continuing to leave.

"Wait! Mari! Are you sure you don't need one of use to walk you home?"

"I'll be fine Aylder." She said as she hoisted herself back onto the main Subtrain station platform. She glanced back at where the train had been. She was sure that she had seen it... but if she had seen it, then why couldn't her friends?

Another heavy sigh escaped her lips. "I should just go home." She said quietly to herself as she looked at a clock on the wall.

Welll, um...

comment...?


End file.
